


Turn Loose the Mermaids

by theangryuniverse



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Falling In Love, Fluff, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Inspired by Nightwish, Little Dialogue, M/M, Mutual Pining, Quarantine and self-isolation make you do things, Romance, Victor is helplessly in love, Yuuri is a mermaid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23284645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theangryuniverse/pseuds/theangryuniverse
Summary: In a fishing net he finds him, basking in the light of the moon.Victor sees its eyes before he sees its tail, and realises that before him is a mermaid. The moment the creature sees him, it stops struggling, its hands no longer trying to rip apart the strong net. It stares, and stares, and Victor realises that it is a man, and that the man glares, a glare that almost forces him to his knees.Victor falls for a mermaid called Yuuri, hard and fast, and with no regret.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 37
Kudos: 346





	Turn Loose the Mermaids

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!  
> Let me tell you - this virus crisis makes my brain go "urgh" at least 17345 times a day, and I have absolutely not felt like writing ANYTHING these days. I just couldn't. But I wanted to focus on something else, write something nice, yes, something sweet and funny, maybe. And here we are. 
> 
> Inspired by ["Turn Loose the Mermaids" by Nightwish.](www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJS5g4-p3K4)

In a fishing net he finds him, basking in the light of the moon.

Victor sees its eyes before he sees its tail, and realises that before him is a mermaid. The moment the creature sees him, it stops struggling, its hands no longer trying to rip apart the strong net. It stares, and stares, and Victor realises that it is a man, and that the man glares, a glare that almost forces him to his knees.

The man is beautiful, Victor realises, so incredibly beautiful that truly, no one could ever stop looking at him. He has deep blue and silver scales ornamenting his hips where his torso continues with a fish tail. The scales move up his body, in intricate patterns over his back. They stretch across his arms and come up to his neck, stopping just below his jawline. His hair is as dark as the night, and so are his eyes that are still locked with Victor’s, and in them shines the light of the moon.

And then, the mermaid begins to struggle again, the fishing nets cutting deep into his skin, and the creature begins to wail. It is a heartbreaking sound, shaking Victor to the core, and he does drop down beside the mermaid at last. He reaches for the net and then into his pocket, pulling out the knife he always keeps there. The mermaid’s eyes widen as he sees the knife and he screeches, the sound almost making Victor’s ears bleed, but he grits his teeth and cuts through the nets, freeing the poor creature from its cruel prison before stepping back and dropping the knife, holding up his hands in defence.

Only then, the angry, no, _terrified_ screeches stop, and Victor only watches.

The mermaid lays still on the sand, breathing heavily, nails digging into the ground. The net has come loose, and he is able to shake it off, but he keeps lying there, not moving. He reminds Victor of a bird that has flown against a window with full speed and has fallen to the ground, just sitting there, motionless, regardless of its surroundings, just trying to regain its senses. It gives Victor the opportunity to look at him longer, to truly take in his extraordinary appearance, and the beauty of his kind that so very few people ever get to see. The water of the sea is lapping against the mermaid’s fin, the scales of a deep midnight blue and silver that look gorgeous in the light of the moon.

Victor is sure he will never forget this moment.

And then, suddenly, the mermaid jerks up, and with a speed and grace that Victor would not have expected he pulls himself back into the water and disappears.

Victor blinks, but the surface of the water has already gone smooth again.

It is only on the following evening when he sits on his favourite rock by the cliffs that he hears something, or rather, someone, chirp beside him.

Victor looks up from the flute he is carving and smiles as he sees the mermaid holding onto another rock near his own. It is not quite dark yet, which allows him to see the mermaid’s face properly, and once more, he is amazed by the creature’s beauty. Any other being would look ridiculous with wet hair sticking to one’s head, but not the mermaid. If anything, he looks graceful. There is some seaweed in his hair, and Victor wonders if he should say something about it, but perhaps it is an ornament to the mermaid.

He puts down the flute and the knife, and keeps smiling at the mermaid, hoping that it is a friendly gesture in their realm, too. But he gets no smile in return. The mermaid only keeps watching, tilting his head to the side slowly, as if he is studying Victor with the greatest interest. Victor wonders if he is the first human the mermaid sees, and judging by the very, very small amount of recorded encounters of humans and mermaids, it is rather likely that this is the case.

Should he greet him? Say something?

Before he can come to a decision, the mermaid lets go of the rock he is holding onto and disappears into the water, and Victor is alone once more.

He chuckles and shakes his head, then picks up his knife again to continue working on the flute.

He almost has a heart attack as he hears the water splash right beside him and the mermaid turns up right at his side, pulling himself up on the rock with surprising ease. Victor barely manages to keep his balance, and he knows very clearly in this moment that this is not how he wants to die, falling of a rock and splitting his head open because a mermaid startled him. But the mermaid does not pull himself out of the water entirely, but just enough to rest his arms on the rough surface. Just then, Victor realises that the mermaid holds something between his teeth.

At first glance, it looks like a shell, but upon closer inspection, Victor realises it is something different. The mermaid spits the thing into his lap, and Victor, utterly confused, picks it up. It is smooth under his fingertips, almost like polished nacre.

Victor opens his mouth to ask, but then the mermaid reaches for the flute he’s been working on and turns it in his hands, curious. Victor chuckles and mimics playing a flute, making a whistling sound. The mermaid looks at him as if he’s not sure if Victor is either serious or gone mad, but it seems that he understands. He snatches the thing he has given Victor out of his hands, dips it into the water and then brings it to his own lips, blowing across its edge. It makes a surprisingly melodic sound that makes Victor smile. The mermaid tosses it back into Victor’s lap and grabs the half-finished flute again, trying to do what Victor has shown him. The sound that comes out of the flute is terrible of course, and the mermaid frowns in utter disgust at the horrible noise.

Victor laughs and takes the flute back.

“It is not finished,” he says, speaking to the mermaid for the first time. Only then, he begins to wonder if the mermaid even understands him. But it seems that he does, for the mermaid nods, and pushes the thing he has given him further into Victor’s lap.

Victor looks at him. “For me?”

The mermaid nods again.

Victor picks it up again, and then does what the mermaid has shown him. He dips it into the water so it is wet, then brings it to his lips and blows just lightly across its edge. There is no sound, and Victor frowns, and the mermaid snickers.

Perhaps he just needs to practice more.

And then, the mermaid lets go of the rock and pushes himself off, and before Victor can call out to stop him, he is gone.

* * *

The next time the mermaid turns up at his side, Victor sits in a small fishing boat. All of a sudden, he can feel it shake, but he already has a feeling for who it is that clings to the side of the small boat even before he turns around. The mermaid is holding onto the edge of the small ship, glaring down at what pools between Victor’s feet. He looks down and sees the fishing net, and he understands why the mermaid is angry. Victor is sure he would be angry, too.

“I’m not hunting your kind,” he assures the mermaid, and the mermaid huffs. Victor sighs. “I swear, it’s true,” he adds and points at the bucket full of fresh fish. The mermaid looks into the bucket with a frown on his beautiful face and then shakes his head in disbelief.

“You know I need to eat something, right?” Victor asks, sitting down. “What do you eat?”

The mermaid lets go of the boat and submerges again, and Victor sighs heavily, sure that he has offended the mermaid for good. They are fickle creatures, those mermaids, that much he knows from the tales and songs. It’s not like he could just go and ask someone. He is sure that if it were known that there was a mermaid around that kept coming to him, someone would sooner or later try to hunt him down and keep him as a trophy.

Victor wants to spare the mermaid from such a fate.

He takes a sip from his bottle of water and then turns to the pick up the fishing net, holding it up for a moment before throwing it out.

Without the mermaid, it is strangely quiet, and even the seagulls have stopped crying, as if the mermaid’s presence had startled them. They are odd creatures indeed, seagulls and mermaids alike.

Victor finds himself so lost in his thoughts that he almost falls into the water as the boat shakes again, the mermaid coming out of the water right next to him and dropping something very large, and very wet, right onto his feet. It is a fish, a huge one, even, and it thrashes around for a few seconds before it becomes still, and Victor sees the bite marks on its body.

The mermaid licks his bloody lips.

“You eat fish, then?” Victor asks.

The mermaid nods.

“That’s…” Victor picks the dead fish up. “That’s a rather large one.”

The mermaid grins and nods at Victor.

“For me?” Victor asks faintly.

The mermaid nods again, and Victor wonders what he has done to suddenly receive the strangest of presents from a mermaid.

And then, the mermaid reaches into the bucket full of small fish, and gives it a critical look.

Victor understands.

“Hey, I can only get the small fish from up here,” he defends himself. “It’s not like I can go down like you and just get the big ones when I feel like it.”

The mermaid snickers again and then stuffs the small fish into his mouth. A little snack, then, nothing more.

This time, he gives Victor a little wave before he leaves again, and Victor is sure he can hear the mermaid chirp.

* * *

“I’ve been wondering,” Victor says to the mermaid one day as he is sitting on the rocks again, the other creature beside him with the tail in the water. “How come you can understand me?”

The mermaid gives him a disapproving look that makes Victor regret his question. Truly, he should have known better. He knows by now that this particular mermaid – or all mermaids, perhaps, he cannot actually tell – is easily offended or insulted. Quite a few times has he been rewarded with cold ocean water being splashed right into his face after saying certain things. But every time, the mermaid has come back.

This time, he is not punished with water thrown into his face. Instead, the mermaid swims away from the rock, deeper into the water, and beckons Victor to follow him.

Victor smiles lightly. “Don’t laugh. But I cannot swim.”

The mermaid does not laugh, but he makes a sound of surprise and disbelief. He swims back to the rock and reaches up to grasp Victor’s hands, gently tugging on them.

“I told you, I cannot swim,” Victor tells him softly. “I cannot follow you. I cannot even breathe underwater.”

The mermaid rolls his eyes again and gives Victor a good, long look.

Asking for trust.

“I do trust you,” Victor says quietly. “But I really cannot swim.”

That the mermaid does not care Victor learns immediately, as he is pulled into the water with a strength that he has not expected from the creature, and he can barely take a deep breath before they both submerge into the water.

Victor realises that he does not panic.

He does not struggle.

The mermaid holds him, and as he opens his eyes, he finds the mermaid looking at him, his black hair floating around him almost like a dark halo.

And then, the mermaid opens his mouth, and Victor feels his voice deep in his bones.

“We have never been mute.”

That day, as he floats together with the mermaid, Victor learns that his name is Yuuri.

* * *

Viktor hears Yuuri’s song in his dreams.

He can hear the music coming from the bottom of his heart. In his song, Yuuri carries the soul of the ocean, the melody that no human ever hears, for it is meant for the mermaids only. Victor does not know why he knows that, but he can feel the longing, the ever-present calling of the sea. It is this calling that brings him back to the beach every single day, that makes him forget his shoes and feel the sand between his toes instead. It is this calling that makes him stand at the shore and look out at the ocean and watch the horizon. It makes him wait, and hope, just for Yuuri to come back for him.

Yuuri comes back every single day, hiding between the rocks, only emerging when Victor comes into sight. He will wait whilst Victor takes off his clothes and leaves them on the rocks, usually facing the other way. But Victor is no fool, and he knows that the mermaid is secretly watching him undress, and he finds that he does not care.

He cannot swim, but Yuuri is strong, and never lets go of him.

Underwater, just for a few seconds at a time, he can hear Yuuri speak. His voice is beautiful, more singing than speaking. He regrets every single time he has to go back to the surface to breathe, but outside of the water, Yuuri cannot speak. His voice comes out as a screeching sound, and it frustrates them both.

But underwater, Yuuri tells him the most beautiful things. Of his family, for example, that he has parents and a sister and friends. All of them, he says, know that he goes to see Victor every day, and that they are worried, but that Yuuri has told him that Victor is kind. Victor tears up at that, but his tears become one with the sea and remain invisible.

This is the only thing they have, and for now, it is enough. But Victor notices the glances Yuuri throws at the beach, but every time he asks, Yuuri won’t give an answer.

It takes Yuuri a long time to speak of what troubles him, and when he does, he does not look at Victor. He pulls him with him into the water, under the surface, and speaks.

“If I go out there and let the water dry on my skin and scales for good, I will be of your kind. But it is irreversible.”

Victor wants to say something, but water floods his lungs, and he has to get back to the surface, coughing heavily while Yuuri holds him and brings him back to the land. There, at the beach, Yuuri puts him down, his tail in the water, and just waits until Victor stops coughing and has caught his breath again.

“You…” Victor coughs. “You have been thinking about that?”

Yuuri nods, but looks out at the ocean.

“You want to…” Victor clears his throat, moving closer to Yuuri. “I mean… why… why would you…”

Yuuri turns his head to look at him, his eyes sparkling in the light of the sun above, but in them is a sadness that Victor can hardly bear to see. And then Yuuri leans forward, pressing a soft, tender kiss to Victor’s lips that lasts for only a few seconds, but it is enough.

Neither of them have to say another word.

* * *

Yuuri does not come again.

They have parted with more kisses, and longing glances, and Victor realises that he has lost his heart much earlier than he had first thought. He cannot determine the exact point in time, but he knows that he has given his heard to the mermaid a long time ago, long before they even started speaking, and that he is already well past the point of forgetting him. He feels it every time his heart aches at the sight of the still ocean, as there is no sight of Yuuri for first days, then weeks, then a month. The full moon comes and goes, but there is no mermaid’s call.

Victor still goes fishing, and carves his flutes, and sits on the beach, but the sea is silent.

There is no song, and no mermaid to be seen in the horizon, coming for him.

He does not lose hope at once, but he feels his heart die a slowly, agonising death.

Yuuri has to think.

And Yuuri, Victor thinks one day, belongs into the depths of the ocean. He is sure that Yuuri has realised that, too, and has chosen not to come again to spare them both the pain.

He feels the tears roll down his cheeks, tastes their saltiness on his lips, and they remind him of Yuuri.

* * *

On the beach he finds him, basking in the light of the sun.

Victor sees his eyes before he sees his legs, and realises that before him is a human. The moment Yuuri sees him, he sits up, his hands no longer wet, no webbing between his fingers. He looks, and looks Victor realises that he has become human, and that Yuuri’s eyes shine, and they force Victor to his knees.

Yuuri is beautiful, so incredibly beautiful that Victor won’t ever stop looking at him. There are no more scales ornamenting his hips, his torso continuing with legs instead of the fish tail that used to be there. Strong, beautiful legs that are to die for, and Victor marvels at their perfection. Yuuri’s hair is still as dark as the night, but now, it is dry, and incredibly soft, and his eyes are still locked with Victor’s, and in them, still the light of the moon.


End file.
